intellectual conversation about this and that

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Saw this little info graphic today. Apparently God killed more people in the bible than Satan. Is this supposed to convince Christians to turn atheist, or is it supposed to make atheists angry? I mean, if you’re a Christian, you’re supposed to believe that God is just, so those deaths would be justified. And if you’re an atheist you don’t believe those deaths were caused by God anyway, so there’s nothing to be angry about.

Science doesn’t say it is infallible. Science embraces human fallibility and tries to work out how to overcome it.

Theists say that their various texts were written by god/s, not man.

Scientific theories would re-establish themselves because they are a reflection of a working reality, not human immortality fantasy.

The rewriting of science is its strength, not a weakness. New information is encouraged. Only a mind befuddled by religion could make your “.. illusory discourse that Western culture ..” statement. Science is legitimate because it works. For example: medical science works and prayer does nothing.

The difference between proof and faith: evidence. Show me the evidence for your faith claims.

Science brought us global warming? Human activity brought us global warming. Science has identified a threat. What is religion doing? Denying it because of their funny old books.

Social Darwinism is a spinoff of religious mindset of god/s supporting one group over another. Once we are able to think without the encumbrance of the religious mindset, trying to kill off the other will become less attractive to humans.

Anyway, I’m sick of your post. You have just brought the same tired justifications for your religious fantasies. Do you cut and paste this shit into every forum?

And this is my reply:

“Science doesn’t say it is infallible. Science embraces human fallibility and tries to work out how to overcome it.”
–Really? Is that ALL science does? I guess nuclear weapons are the ultimate in overcoming human fallibility then. Or would it be genetically modified corn?

“Theists say that their various texts were written by god/s, not man.”

–No. Most say they were written by men who were inspired by god. The Buddhist texts were supposedly written by the Buddha, who apparently made no claims about god/s. The Koran was supposedly written by a prophet inspired by an angel. Pay attention to detail, would ya?

“For example: medical science works and prayer does nothing.”
–Apparently there is evidence that prayer and other spiritual practices have health benefits. It’s not exactly curing cancer, but hey, it’s something. You can find scholarly articles about it on the “Internet.” I don’t know if it’s true, but the placebo effect is nearly universally accepted by the scientific community, and this seems like pretty much the same thing, really.

“The difference between proof and faith: evidence. Show me the evidence for your faith claims.”

–Faith by definition requires no evidence. For example, I have faith that the entire universe sprang from nothing in a single instant. I believe this because I’ve had direct revelation. I don’t need to prove it to you because I don’t care if you believe it. The burden of proof lies with the person who wants to convince the other of their claim.

“Science has identified a threat. What is religion doing? Denying it because of their funny old books.”

–Yes. Science is the cause and the cure for global warming. But is religion really denying it? All of religion? All religious believers? You might want to think that through a bit more and do some research before making such a claim. Unless it’s based on faith, in which case more power to ya.

“Social Darwinism is a spinoff of religious mindset of god/s supporting one group over another. Once we are able to think without the encumbrance of the religious mindset, trying to kill off the other will become less attractive to humans.”

– I guess Pol Pot, Stalin, and Mao Zedong didn’t get the memo. And I have my suspicions that most religious “leaders” who have led people into war were not spiritually guided at all but were simply sociopaths who knew that they needed to appear to believe in order to manipulate the masses. And what do you mean by “the religious mindset” — Is there just one?

Google recently updated the design for its online play store. While I can’t find any benefit other than eye candy (It would have been nice to have better search-ability, for example being able to search apps based upon permissions or popularity within certain time constraints) I certainly missed the “Permissions” section. After searching frantically I gave up, bing’ed it and confirmed my fears..parts of them anyway.

Don’t forget the Hangouts debacle. There is a consistent pattern here. They are stripping features out of everything and closing everything that was previously open. Very disturbing.

It seems google is trying to be like apple: dumb everything down, like riding a tricycle in a walled-off garden.

Background: app permissions are often why you get apps for free: they sell your identity to advertisers or who ever else might want to pay for that information. Even paid apps do this so getting the paid version isn’t a fail safe. Because I desire a modicum of privacy I ALWAYS check permissions prior to install and app permissions are often a deciding factor in my purchases/installs. Why does a “free” simple game need to know all my contacts and read my SMS, GPS coarse and fine locations? Creepy, especially if the only opt out is to install nothing at all.

Some things that look good are really a wolf in sheep’s clothing

Sure, you can still see the permissions but you have to click to install first and then review them. This is a setback for privacy because raises the barrier for people wanting to know where their personal information is going. True, most people don’t care but on the other hand most people don’t even know or are too busy so they just trust the app – after all if it was bad why would Google list it in the play store?

This is a setback for security by the same measure. People just don’t have the time (let alone knowledge) to investigate and this makes it even more difficult to spot suspect permissions that may allow trojans/viruses/malware to do god knows what.

I am going to speculate that someone at Google got paid a very handsome salary to analyze the user interface and conclude that this change is for the better. Problem is, “better” according to for-profit corporations generally means higher sales. Is it a coincidence this information is only provided after you have made an initial decision to press that “buy” button? From what I have seen, Computer Human Interaction (CHI) specialists don’t approach these issues from a customer satisfaction standpoint as it is assumed the Human doesn’t even know what they want.

If you receive the “please wait” message and it never changes, try another browser, try mercahntcenter.intuit.com as a login rather than login.intuit.com – not that it will work because it probably wont but the real solution is:

log into merchant center from within quickbooks.

works instantly, you can find invoices processed the same day whereas if you try online you can’t even see transactions you just processed!

Well kid, this is the future if you think
Goverment=Bad
Corporations=good

Its a slippery slope we are stepping on by having our corporate overlord wage slave drivers educate us, employ us and entertain us from cradle to grave. Whose interest do you think a for-profit school’s leadership would have close to their heat. kids? WTF? No, profit! The kids might as well be cattle.
Corporate Charter School Slavery arrives In British Classrooms: http://www.disinfo.com/2012/12/corporate-workfare-arrives-in-british-classrooms/

“Launched quietly in 2010, studio schools allow private businesses to run state education for 14 to 19-year-olds with learning ‘on the job’ and not in the classroom.”

read on that and think what good it would do to pay a for profit corporation to take over the education system in washington state!